Photography Forbidden City and Mei Hill from the White Pagoda
Photography Forbidden City and Mei Hill from the White Pagoda
CC BY-SA 4.0
A black-and-white photograph showing an extraordinary panoramic view of Beijing at the beginning of the 20th century. In the centre we see the northern part of the walled Forbidden City (Gugong 故宫 or Zijincheng 紫禁城). On the left is Mei Hill (Meishan 藝山) or “Coal Hill”. The photo was taken from the site of the White stupa (Baita 白塔) in what is now Beihai Park (Beihai Gongyuan 北海公園) in Beijing.
The photograph is the 274th of 449 photographs of Beijing and its surroundings in the album of Ivan Skušek Jr., purchased during his stay in Beijing (1914–1920). In the handwritten inventory of the album, the photograph is referred to as Verbotene Stadt und Kohlen-Hügel (von der Ming-Pagode). (DZ, MV)
Place of manufacture: Beijing
Manufacturing technique: black-and-white photograph
Dimensions: length: 29.8 cm, width: 9.1 cm
No. of parts: 1
Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Date of the last acquisition: 1963
Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Object condition, handling and damage: well preserved
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